It’s better to grow your own, or source it locally in the “food underground”.

An excerpt from the article, and some thoughts after the excerpt:

“For four generations the Gibbs family milked cattle on their farm in a fertile valley in Allamuchy Township, New Jersey. Facing dismally low milk prices, Frank Gibbs and his sons, Brant and Keith, struggled this year to continue the tradition. But a month ago, they sold off their entire herd of nearly 200 cows.”

Mistake: trying to be an agribusiness, instead of providing first and foremost for yourself and selling surplus. I harp constantly on the principle of a closed cycle: a farm is not truly successful unless the loop of selling all your product gets closed. People need to work on LEAVING the industrial food system, not staying hooked in it a la Matrix-style. Instead, have enough dairy cows to provide milk for your family and surplus enough to make cheese, have skim to feed to your pigs, and maybe a small surplus to sell. Cows need to be GRASS FED, so you won’t have the cost of grain on top of your farm. Use your manure for the garden. Have cattle for meat, as well as other meat producing animals such as pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens, geese. Put everything back into your farm FIRST. But how can you do this? By being debt free, and owning your farm outright.